Scientists have developed a new technique to identify genes that increase the chance of women developing breast cancer.

They hope it will lead to a single blood test that would reveal a woman’s risk of getting the disease.

Researchers say the new technique speeds up gene identification and could mean finding all the genes associated with breast cancer.

Cancer Research UK described the development as “hugely significant”.

Scientists found two genes responsible for breast cancer two years ago.

But now new research led by Cancer Research UK’s Cambridge Research Institute, published in the Nature journal, has found five more.

It used to take decades to go through a patient’s DNA and find faulty genes, but the newly-developed technique now makes the process much faster.

It compares significant parts of the patient’s DNA with a healthy volunteer’s and the differences are judged most likely to be the genes responsible for the disease.

This computer-based process can be completed in just a few hours and scientists believe that, within a few months, researchers could find all the genes involved in the development of breast cancer.

To find the four new genes, they sifted through the DNA of nearly 50,000 women, half of them breast cancer patients and half healthy.